The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 408

23:11. For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

23:12. Let thy heart apply itself to instruction and thy ears to words of knowledge.

23:13. Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.

23:14. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from h.e.l.l.

23:15. My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:

23:16. And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.

23:17. Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:

23:18. Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.

23:19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.

23:20. Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:

23:21. Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together, shall be consumed: and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.

23:22. Hearken to thy father, that begot thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.

23:23. Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

23:24. The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.

23:25. Let thy father and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.

23:26. My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

23:27. For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

23:28. She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

23:29. Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

23:30. Surely they that pa.s.s their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups.

23:31. Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the gla.s.s: it goeth in pleasantly,

23:32. But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.

23:33. Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

23:34. And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep when the stern is lost.

23:35. And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake and find wine again?

Proverbs Chapter 24

24:1. Seek not to be like evil men, neither desire to be with them:

24:2. Because their mind studieth robberies, and their lips speak deceits.

24:3. By wisdom the house shall be built, and by prudence it shall be strengthened.

24:4. By instruction the storerooms shall be filled with all precious and most beautiful wealth.

24:5. A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant.

24:6. Because war is managed by due ordering: and there shall be safety where there are many counsels.

24:7. Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.

24:8. He that deviseth to do evils, shall be called a fool.

24:9. The thought of a fool is sin: and the detractor is the abomination of men.

24:10. If thou lose hope, being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished.

24:11. Deliver them that are led to death: and those that are drawn to death, forbear not to deliver.

24:12. If thou say: I have not strength enough: he that seeth into the heart, he understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall render to a man according to his works.

24:13. Eat honey, my son, because it is good, and the honeycomb most sweet to thy throat.

24:14. So also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul: which when thou hast found, thou shalt have hope in the end, and thy hope shall not perish.

24:15. Lie not in wait, nor seek after wickedness in the house of the just, nor spoil his rest.

24:16. For a just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil.

24:17. When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad, and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice:

24:18. Lest the Lord see, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

24:19. Contend not with the wicked, nor seek to be like the unG.o.dly.

24:20. For evil men have no hope of things to come, and the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

24:21. My son, fear the Lord, and the king: and have nothing to do with detractors.

24:22. For their destruction shall rise suddenly: and who knoweth the ruin of both?

24:23. These things also to the wise: It is not good to have respect to persons in judgment.

24:24. They that say to the wicked man: Thou art just: shall be cursed by the people, and the tribes shall abhor them.